Approximately 53 percent of the Peruvian population lives below the national poverty line, and 25 percent lives in extreme poverty. Although the country ranks 82nd out of 177 countries (2006 HDI), it characterizes for its stark disparities reflected in a Gini coefficient of 0.55 (1 indicating complete inequality).
Nationwide 24 percent of children under five are chronically undernourished, and the prevalence has not changed over the last decade. In remote rural areas, rates can reach up to 70 percent (ENDES 2000). Almost 50 percent of children less than five suffer from anaemia, and the figures are much higher in the highlands (60-70 percent).
Insufficient allocation of public resources in the areas of health, education and infrastructure, as well as limited availability of farming land and very low yields of agricultural production in areas higher than 3.000 meters above sea level make the Southern Andean population extremely vulnerable to food insecurity. Forty two percent of the population cannot cover the minimum required caloric intake (2.100 Kcal).
A lack of access to food commodities, poor consumption patterns, inadequate child care and nutrition practices and poor educational levels among mothers, are the main causes of chronic undernutrition in Peru.
Food insecurity in Peru tends to be periodically aggravated by recurrent emergencies which mainly affect the southern highland area. 2007 was a particularly difficult year in terms of natural disasters: floods, frost, hail storms and heavy snowfalls affected approximately 700.000 people in 13 Peru regions.
In August, a 7.9-magnitude earthquake shook the southern coast of Peru, affecting approximately 300.000 people in Ica, Lima and Huancavelica.
In Peru, WFP contributes to the achievement of Millennium Development Goals 1, 2, 3, 5 and 7, through development and emergency operations (EMOP), as well as capacity-building activities.
Development interventions are carried out through “The Promotion of Sustainable Development of Andean Micro –watersheds project PER 6240” which includes food-for-work (FFW), food-for-training (FFT), adult literacy, nutrition education and HIV/AIDS activities in poor rural and peri-urban areas of the Andes, the Amazon and the Coast.
The project aims at protecting livelihoods in crisis situations, enhancing resilience to shocks and improving the nutrition and health of vulnerable groups of women and children, therefore contributing to offset the impact of climate change in the country's poorest regions.
The intervention consists of five components: improvement of agriculture, school and housing infrastructure through FFW, literacy training and nutritional education with FFT, mother and child nutrition and health improvement (MCH) and HIV/AIDS. The project also includes a capacity-building component targeted at Government sectors on specific themes, such as nutrition and disaster prevention and response.
The project covers the most vulnerable rural communities of Ayacucho, Apurimac, Huancavelica, Piura, Cusco, Puno, Kandozi communities in Loreto, and peri-urban areas of Lima, according to VAM results. Beneficiaries are (i) small scale farmers living in food insecure areas of some of the poorest regions of Peru; (ii) illiterate women from rural areas, (iii) pregnant women and mothers of children less than five; and (iv) HIV/AIDS-affected people.
Four emergency projects were carried out in 2007, in collaboration with government and NGO partners:
WFP assistance has also included capacity-building activities in key thematic areas such as nutritional education, cost of hunger, knowledge management, and quality control during food purchases, food purchasing processes, disaster prevention and response, Monitoring and Evaluation, and targeting through Vulnerability Analysis and Mapping (VAM) and Emergency Food Security Assessment (EFSA) studies.
